The Plot Thickens

Having now paid my rent for the extra ¼ plot and after waiting for the markers to be moved we are now in business.

Last Saturday we arrived at the allotment early and I managed to strim the whole of the new plot. It was really hard work and as the sun was extremely hot that day, I guess I must have burnt off quite a few calories! The children helped by raking up some of the grass and consigning it to the ever-growing compost heap, and while I was strimming I found one of our tools, a "masher" which we had lost the previous week. That just shows you how tall the grass was because the masher was completely hidden and I almost strimmed that too.

Two days later in the searing heat Peter dug across the whole length of the new plot to a width of about 1 ft, so we are on our way. The plan is to try and dig about the same amount each time we go and plant as we dig with no particular plan other than to use the space as an "overflow" plot this year. We have already used up all the space in bed no. 3 with the potatoes and we still have the late maincrop to plant, so they will go in the new plot and help break up the ground nicely. I shall also plant some of the tomatoes and peppers there and possibly some garlic.

Next year the ¼ will be organised into a series of beds, but there is no time for those niceties this year, the main thing is to get it dug and planted even if it is a bit haphazard - after all so long as the crops grow, what's the problem?

For now I am thinking of what I can plant permanently there next year. I fancy some fruit trees and maybe some more berries and fruit bushes, but I mustn't get ahead of myself, but it's OK to dream!

Extra Measure

A few weeks ago I spoke to the Allotment Secretary about the possibility of having an extra ¼ of a plot which adjoins our existing ½ plot. The man who has the adjoining ½ plot next to ours has only ever cultivated the far end of his plot and the ¼ next to ours is in a very sorry state. When I mentioned it to her she said that she would raise it with the Committee, who were shortly having a meeting, but as there were about a dozen people already on the waiting list, it maybe that I would have to stay with my existing ½ and the adjoining plot split in two.

However, she did say that as we had done so well with our existing plot in our first year and were very keen, that would go in our favour, so she said "wait and see".

When we came back from a weeks holiday there was a message on the answer phone from the Allotment Secretary saying that if we wanted to have the extra ¼ it was ours for the price of £13 per year! would we? You bet!

So a few days later I duly paid my £13 and as soon as the markers are moved, we can start digging this new patch. When we went down to the allotment on Monday of this week, both Peter and I dug one spade's worth and although the earth is very nice it is full of...guess what? masses of bindweed and covered in grass. It is much worse than our existing plot was when we took it over, but I am sure that will the same hard work and planning it will be up and running in 6 months or so. I will let you know the progress that takes place.
Just for the record, here's what it looks like at the moment. Later on I will take some more photos so you can see the difference.

Growing Pains

One week ago I started the growing cycle again. Here's what has been planted so far.

20 potatoes "Ulstre Sceptre" - I planted these really deep, at least 12" or more, 3 rows of 7

10 rows of onions "Sturon" which had already been rooted, 19 onions in each row. I planted these 5" apart with 12" between each row.

Today I did some more planting:-

18 potatoes "Charlotte" - also planted really deep, 6 potatoes in each row

1 row of onions "Sturon" which had been rooted, 19 onions in the row.

I still have another 200 or so onions to plant (some red and some white), so I am going to have to plant rows of onions in the gaps between the rows or else I am going to run out of space in that bed. It will be a bit more difficult to weed in between the rows and I shall have to do it by hand instead of hoeing, but so long as the onions have space to grow, that's the main thing.

While I was planting the onions the man on the plot above me started to cultivate his plot this year. His method of growing veg and managing his plot is the complete opposite to me as he leaves his plot for the winter months and then rotivates the whole lot. There I was digging with my fork and planting carefully by hand, and when I looked up (having planted 10 rows) his earth was all but turned over and looked lovely and crumbly. I thought to myself that maybe I should explore this rotivator method, but after watching Joe Swift on Gardeners World and seeing how all the weeds (especially bindweed) were broken into many parts and all having the potential to grow and further multiply, I will be sticking to the old-fashioned method of digging and laboriously removing all the weeds that I can see.

Either way, both he and I have good crops, we just go about it in different ways. Each to his own I say.

Spreading it Around

Over the past 3 weeks, progress on the allotment has been steady. It's been a case of digging over what has been previously dug - and I have to say that each time the earth is dug it does get easier, and I have visions in a few years time that my earth will be like a fine tilth such as seen on Gardeners's World. By adding plenty of manure and home-made compost, home-made leaf mould and digging, the earth can only get better. Talking of manure....

Two weeks ago just before going away for a week's holiday I thought I would nip down for an hour or so to do a few jobs, and as I arrived the gates were already open (always very handy) and there was a delivery of a huge pile of manure being unloaded. One of the chaps from the allotment is friendly with the local stables and every so often there is a delivery. This is the first time that I have been at the allotment when this has happened, and I had heard stories from other allotmenteers about manure disappearing before your very eyes. Well, I witnessed it for myself. In the space of about an hour, it was all gone! People were coming out of the woodwork and literally running up and down the hill with barrowloads of manure piled high and then a sack full of manure on top of that. During this time I was able to get 3 wheelbarrows full which was enough for what I needed. I then lent my barrow to a friend just across the path and she only managed one barrowload. The thing was that the chap who organised the manure to be delivered hardly got any for himself!

It was hot and hard work shovelling all this muck, but was all worth it. I covered it up and will leave it to rot down a bit before I spread it around.

I can't wait to get planting, but that is a week or so away as the plants aren't quite ready to put in just yet.

Child's Play

This year I have moved the beds that I have given to the children a bit further along the bottom of the plot. My daughter is next to the newly created spinach bed and my son is between her bed and the raspberries that I planted late last year.

Their beds are approximately 3ft deep and 4 ft wide

When they first took the space over it was overgrown with buttercups and bindweed. We pulled as much out as we could with our hands and then set about giving it a good dig. As this part of the allotment hadn't been dug last year it was quite difficult but we persevered and it has now all been dug over at least once. The next step is to "mash" it and then dig it thoroughly a few more times before giving it a top dressing of manure and probably a little polytunnel to warm the earth up a bit.

The children have done most of the work themselves and once they get going they really love it and are looking forward to planting their vegetables.

3 weeks later.....

The childrens beds are now completely dug and "mashed" and they have a very thick top dressing of manure and on top of that there is a thick layer of nicely decomposing leaf mould.

In a few weeks time we will plant their seeds, which are:-

red & white onions
parsnips
radishes
spring onions
tomato
beetroot
leeks

Needless to say they are very excited, and I can't wait for us to plant their seeds and watch them grow.

Arrival

Great news! The seeds have now arrived and the packets have been "filed" in my biscuit tin under the various months that they need to be started off. I have sown a tray of tomato "Tamina", but as my greenhouse is unheated and the weather has been very cold just recently (the temperature doesn't get much above 50F), I am wondering if they will germinate or whether I shall have to sow another tray.

The onions arrived (all 450 of them) the day after the seeds and I have planted, at weekly intervals, 6 trays with 48 "Sturon" onions in each. This is a tip I have picked up from one chap at the allotment and the onions will root in the trays in 4-5 days or so and then will start to grow little green shoots from the top. Once they have reached 1-2" of green growth I will plant them out into their bed (no. 3).

I have given 40 onion sets to the children's school, 8 to my mum, and the children will grow 5 each. The remaining onion sets will be planted at further weekly intervals so that they can be harvested (hopefully) a week or so apart from each other and I don't get a massive glut that I can't keep on top of.

The potatoes arrived a few days after the onions and within one hour of receiving them they had all been set out in individual egg carton boxes to "chit", which will probably take about 2-3 weeks. My plan is to plant them at the beginning of April, starting with "Ulstre Sceptre" which is a first early.

The red onions "Red Baron" which I grew so successfully last year arrived on Thursday last week and I have planted 1 tray with 45 in it, and I will do the same with these onions as I have done with the white ones, and stagger the planting so that they can be harvested at intervals. The children will grow 5 each of these onions as well.

Because I ordered so many onions I received a free pack of 500g of shallots "Springfield" so I will plant them directly into the soil as they don't need to root first.

The 13 garlic "Thermidrome" bulbs are also ready to be planted direct into the soil once it has warmed up and it will go in a bed that I have prepared just under the herb bed. I read in Carol Klein's excellent book "Grow your own Veg" that garlic likes sand mixed with its earth, so I will try this and have dug in some sand to help them on their way.

The digging is going well and now most of the earth has now been dug, apart from the patch that I have earmarked as a salad bed. I have covered this with black plastic sheeting to suppress the weeds, and will dig it over later in the year.

Herb Patch

Next to my newly constructed leaf mould bin I marked out a bed which I want to devote to herbs. I love cooking with fresh herbs, so what better than to grow my own. It is quite a big bed at the bottom of the site, and wasn't cultivated last year so the earth was fairly hard and compacted. It was also covered with buttercups and the ever present bindweed.

My first attempt was to loosen the earth and turn it over to expose it to the weather - we have had quite a few mornings recently with a sharp frost - and that always helps to break down the ground a bit.

After leaving this patch for a week I then used the "masher" to break down the bigger clods of earth and then gave it a fairly thorough dig. Two trips to the bonfire site followed where the wheelbarrow was piled fairly high with all the weeds. I left it again for another week and dug it yet again and then gave it a very thick top coat of manure. I will leave this for a few weeks (probably until the end of March), let the worms get to work on it and then dig in the manure in readiness for planting some herbs. Some herbs I will plant direct into the soil and some I will start off in the greenhouse and transplant at a later date.

The herbs I want to grow in my bed are coriander, parsley, oregano, chives, garlic chives, basil and thyme. If there is any space left in the bed, I will fill it with radishes and spring onions.